Strategic Discipline Blog

Twelve tired, sweat covered young men shuffle through the hall toward a classroom.  Each chooses a desk to sit in, plops themselves down for an unexpected respite from a grueling first week of basketball practice.  The group looks around, engages in small talk, with one team member shouting out, “Wick, do you know what this is about?”  I shrug my shoulders.  It’s a first time experience for me as well as the rest of the team.  Shortly thereafter, the new head coach enters his biology classroom where the boys have taken up temporary residence.  Coach Belke strikes a commanding appearance.  He’s about 6’2” with a barrel chest, large thick forearms, and looks every bit like the man who supposedly had a try-out with the Chicago Bears.  Immediately the room falls silent, such is the presence he dictates.  While Coach Belke has coached football and basketball before at Princeton High School, it’s been nearly a decade since he’s done either. He volunteered to take on the task of coaching basketball this year when our coach of the past three years unexpectedly left for a better teaching position. After years of dismal sports performances, this team is expected to do well.  Our sophomore year our team won the first game a Princeton basketball team had won after 37 consecutive losses.   The following year (our junior season) our team finished 13-6, 3^rd place in the conference.  Expectations are high.

Did you realize when a customer says thanks, they make you happy, but they make themselves even happier.  In her book The How of Happiness, Sonja Lyubomirsky, a professor at the University of California, Riverside, describes a dozen scientifically proven strategies to make yourself happier.  The first?  Expressing gratitude.

At this time of year it’s very common to find people exhibiting high stress levels.  A trip for groceries, or to the hardware store, takes a bit longer due to long lines and depending on where you live the weather.

If you want to improve something what should you do?  First make it a priority, then begin measuring it.  One of my clients and I share a goal to improve our lead generation activities.  We‘ve been talking about improving performance for months and recently decided in order to improve our behavior we need to make this intention a priority.  Establishing the priority came first.  Then we had to decide to measure it and finally put accountability in place. 

You've heard the story of the boss who has two rules:  Rule #1 The Boss is Always Right.  Rule #2 When the boss is wrong, refer to Rule #1. 

In many companies this time of year for annual planning revolves around one person making plans, usually the president or owner(s).  The reason this occurs is often multiple.  First the business owner started the business and in order for the business to grow it’s always been dependent upon him/her to make the plans.  Another reason is that getting input from others takes time, precious time that many owners and company presidents don’t have or don’t care to take.  Habits are hard to break.  Setting directives and being in a commanding if not dominate position has worked in the past.  It’s decisive, impactful, quick, and if it’s gotten results in the past there’s no reason to change.

As your business grows however the problem with this one person or small group making all the decisions on direction, objectives, and priorities is its limited ability to take into account all the obstacles and challenges that your priorities might face. 

In 2012: Planning or Strategy we discussed the distinction between planning and strategy.  While many companies struggle to execute their plans, the reality is most companies fail not due to execution, rather due to poor decisions. 

Each of us is different.  We are not all motivated by the same thing.  It’s a lesson that Aubrey Daniels consistently reinforces in Bringing Out the Best in People.  It’s the reason managing people is so challenging.  It requires thoughtful observation, persistent communication and enduring energy to discover and maintain relationships that support and encourage your people to be their best each day.

If you’ve not seen Dan Pink's video yet RSA Animate - Drive: The surprising truth about what motivates us, I urge you to view it.   Pink presented his views on human behavior and motivation during the Phoenix Growth Summit.  I’ll have more on his offerings in future blogs.

Right now you should be deep into your annual planning or already have completed it.  In preparing our coaching clients for annual planning we always ask the company to complete a short five question employee survey to gather information.  Questions include what the company should start, stop and keep doing.  (Send me an email Employee Survey if you’d like these five questions.)  Discovery like this is important for the business in looking ahead.   Remember the movie “Titanic?”  “Iceberg dead ahead?”  Many times the people at the tactical level of our business know much more than we give them credit for, and frequently they see the obstacles, challenges and opportunities far better than we or our mangers and departments heads can.